U.S. beats Russia 16-14, takes team gold

World champ Gutches defeats Olympic champ Khadzimurad

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Posted: Sunday July 26, 1998 08:34 PM

1997 World Champion Les Gutches broke a 3-3 tie with a takedown with just 50 seconds left in the bout AP

NEW YORK (AP) - An old college trick - and a little luck - helped Tony Purler spark the United States to the Goodwill Games' wrestling gold medal Sunday.

Jet lag might have had a hand in it, too.

Purler, from Norman, Oklahoma, pinned Murat Ramanazov of Russia in 27 seconds of their 128-pound match, the second of four straight wins that sent the American team to a 16-14 dual meet victory.

The Russians adjusted their lineup to try to combat the U.S. quickness, moving Ramazanov up from 119 pounds to face Purler.

But the strategy backfired when Purler, a 1993 NCAA champion at Nebraska, put Ramazanov on his back almost as soon as the match began.

"He got his legs crossed, I grabbed his knee and put him in a hold," Purler said. "It was one of my old college moves. It was luck. You don't get many falls in international competition."

The pin was good for four points and, added to an opening decision by Sam Hensen over Leonid Chuchunov, put the United States on track for victory.

"We made some things happen in those first two matches," U.S. coach John Smith said.

The home team got another boost when world champion Les Gutches scored a takedown with 50 seconds remaining to defeat Olympic champion Khadzimurad Magomedov 4-3 at 187.

Gutches, from Corvallis, Oregon, said the Russians may have been fighting jet lag, having only arrived in New York Friday.

"The third day is the hardest day on your body," he said. "And that may be a little evidence of what we're seeing today."

Smith said the Goodwill gold would be a springboard for the world championships, scheduled for Iran. The Iranian team staged a brief walkout of its Saturday night match against the United States because of demonstrations by anti-Tehran exiles in the crowd at Madison Square Garden.

The American wrestlers, who competed in Tehran earlier this year, said they didn't think there'd be a payback for them when they return in September.

"I think that the Iranian Wrestling Federation and the Iranian government in particular have a lot to gain from us getting there and getting back safe," Gutches said. "I'm going there to win a world championship, I don't care if I have to sleep in a barn and set my stuff on a bale of hay."

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